Reflections and notes on the relationship of art to nature and of nature to art from along Warwoman Creek, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Katuah Province of Turtle Island, where the light, the dark, the seasons, the time of deep past, deep present and deep future all mix in alchemal mists to reveal and hide and transform these slopes, shaded coves, bright rivers, deep forests and me, and together sustain me and my art.

Monday, December 31, 2012

glazed with rain
water beside the white
chickens." - William Carlos Williams

"For we are not pans and barrows, nor even porters of the fire and torch-bearers, but children of the fire, made of it, and only the same divinity transmuted, and at two or three removes, when we know least about it." - Emerson, 1844, "The Poet"

In my wheel barrow of time - the compost of past and future.

In the longest night - the end of the world the beginning of the world.

In this night we who live by fire we who live by dreams - in this light we are all but mirrors.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

I live in a great
forest that reaches across the upper fifth of my state of Georgia in
the Southern Appalachians of the U.S. The trees have given up their
tremendous harvest of hope in fallen nuts and leaves, the leaves blazing
just before their descent. In this, an end and a beginning are folded
in one another’s hands. I suspect they probably always are in life. It
is a hard truth which I never seem prepared to fully accept.

I walk to
the river nearby, over and over again, in all the seasons, to see this
plainly there in front of me, this truth about this joining of
beginnings and ends, and to ask over and over again - just how this can
be?

I often return with poems to sing, but always the question too, raw and abiding. Sometimes I abandon my clothes and immerse myself in the river to feel what it’s like to be part of it. But I always climb out, it’s surface behind me mirroring and recalling my shape, without ever managing to leave that question behind in the water- how is it that beginnings and ends are enfolded one in another? And then the greater, nagging question: what does this mean?

I ask my oil paints this same question too. Like a river it flows, yet stays and says: this is presence. What does it mean?

"Summer Trees, Morning Rain," 2012, o/c

SUMMER TREES, MORNING RAIN

Summer trees,
morning rain.

Beside the river

all that is
goes this way.

In this 67th fall, I am closer to my beginning and my end then ever. I’m often afraid that time is a river that runs only one way - to its end. But this is not what the river says. It runs, but never abandons its beginning - it merely stretches. and in its tremendous elasticity creates and affirms it’s enduring presence. This is difficult to grasp. Our lives are so ephemeral, so soaked in transience. But perhaps it’s not just us - perhaps everything is this way - it’s just the way Creation works. All our names are writ on water. We all follow, inextricably, undeniably, from noun to verb.

So I converse with the river, with its song, with the song I sometimes take away with me, with the paint., and with the words. It’s all a great language, echoing. Everything in the Universe echoes - language is filled with water, water is filled with language.

About Me

I live in a secluded cove in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NE Georgia, along Warwoman Creek - about a 9 mile hike West from the Chattooga River. To the north of my studio, the Blue Ridge Mountains rise in deep cerulean blues. I live here because these mountains sustain me and my art - light, dark, the seasons, the time of deep past, deep present and deep future, all mix here in alchemal mists that alternately reveal and hide and transform these steep slopes, shaded coves, bright rivers, and deep forests -just as they do my life and work.

July 19, 2014, Poetry reading at Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia Poetry Society. Received an annual award from the Society - '2nd Place Award for Excellence' for my poem "In My Body" to be published in their 2014 anthology 'The Reach of Song.'

Sept 29, 2012, Performance of "Let us Gather at This River" with Marie Dunkle on fiddle. Vogel State Park, Ga. Georgia Forest Watch Fall Retreat.May 5, 2012, Home Grown Market, Clayton Ga. 10 a.m. New Poem: "An Invocation for the Opening of the Rabun County Home Growers Market" with original improvised fiddle music by Marie Dunkle.

May 5, 2012 at the North Georgia Community Center, Ellijay, Ga. Laurence will perform his long poem "Let Us Gather at This River," with original music by violinist Marie Dunkle, as part of the Ga. Forest Watch Wild & Woolly Art & Nature Music Festival.

January 19, 2012 7 pm. at the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C. Laurence will perform his long poem “Let Us Gather at This River” with original music by Marie Dunkle at Gary Carden’s “The Liars Bench” a monthly presentation showcasing Southern Appalachian culture in all its richness and diversity.

November 26, 2011"Poetry Hike to the Chattooga River." Original poems along the way by Laurence Holden & original music by fiddler Marie Dunkle, sponsored by Georgia Forest Watch.October 24, 2011 - Debut of my new poem "Let Us Gather at This River" - a long poem with original music by cellist Marie Dunkle at Poets Live, preview event for the 2011 Georgia Literary Festival, Sautee-Nacoochee Center, Sautee, GeorgiaApril 23, 2011, "Sing Me the Creation: Poems for the Earth, Poems for Coming Home," Poetry presentation with music by Julie Longhill and Tom Devan, Promenade of the Arts, Mountain City, Georgia.November 26, 2010: "A River of Words & Images," multi-media presentation in collaboration with artist/poet Honor Woodard, Crescent Moon Bakery, Clayton Ga.

October 18 - 21, 2010: Artist-in-Residence, Westminster Schools, Atlanta. Talks & conversations about poetry and painting, our sense of place in nature and guided explorations of writing in nature with students at Westminster Schools, Atlanta.

October 15, 2010, Poetry reading at Sycamore Place Gallery, Decatur, Ga. in collaboration with artist and writer Honor Woodard.

September 22, 2010'Within Reach of a River: Paintings & Poems 2001-2010. Westminster Schools, AtlantaAugust 15, 2010. "Poetry on the Mountaintop." A hike up Rabun Bald in North Georgia, with poetry reading along the way. Sponsored by Georgia Forest Watch.

July 31, 2010: Georgia Poetry Society, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Ga. Received an annual award from the Society - '2nd Award for Excellence' for poem 'What's Needed,' to be published in their anthology 'The Reach of Song.'

July 17th, 2010, 2 pm. "Forest Walk with Poetry" at the Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Georgia. A walk through the forest with readings from my poems and others (including Mary Hambidge) about the creative powers in nature that are evoked by this special creative sanctuary that is the Hambidge Center.June 30th, 2010 - "Water Walk with Poetry," at the Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Ga. sponsored by Globe Gallery, including an experience of writing and performing a group poem.